The draft is still a few hours away but I'll be using this post as an "open" for any commentary you might have as draft night goes on. I'll also be dumping any fresh rumors in this thread. And as a reminder, you can use your Yahoo or Open ID logins on this and any other Sports Blog Nation website.
UPDATE (7:35 CT): Jennings is indeed the pick, over Holiday.
UPDATE (6:50 CT):
- Woelfel says Knicks could trade down to take Rubio and Curry could slip to Bucks; however, that was based on them trading with OKC at three and OKC just took Harden (from htr@RealGM)
- Ford's Mock 7.3 still says Jennings
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DX: Holiday over Jennings...or maybe not. DX has been yo-yoing on this and just a little while ago they had Jennings here. Now, their front page has Holiday 10th and Jennings slipping to 17th. Givony wrote:
With DeMar DeRozan on much shakier ground in Toronto (#9) than initially thought, there is a pretty legit possibility that he could be on the board at 10 when Milwaukee picks. Just days after trading an extremely athletic wing player in Richard Jefferson, you would assume that this would appear to be a perfect fit…Apparently not, though, since they seem to have their heart set on drafting a point guard, with Brandon Jennings being one player that Assistant GM Jeff Weltman seems to be especially fond of. We had Jennings slipping all the way to the #17 pick in our last mock draft, which would definitely make him the steal of the draft, but have moved him back up to #10…for now.
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Ford: Jennings over Holiday (13th). Ford also has a "confidence level" for each pick (if the guy's available), and it's pretty high on this one--70%.
The Bucks have three point guards on their board -- Jonny Flynn, Jrue Holiday and Jennings. Over the last 48 hours, all of the momentum has been going in the direction of Jennings, even if Flynn falls to them.I think Jennings' upside and star potential have the Bucks wowed at the moment.
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RealGM: Bucks/Bulls trade talk. Unclear if there's much behind this, but there's at least a rumor about Ridnour, Elson and #10 going to Chicago for Kirk Hinrich. My first reaction is I'd rather roll the dice with whoever we get at 10 than take an established solid-but-not-great guy like Hinrich. Ridnour and Elson are expiring so it's not like they're impossible to move otherwise. And while I like Hinrich in general, but he's got three years and $26.5 million left on his deal--not horrendous or anything, but not a bargain either. However, you could play him in a backcourt with Sessions since both guys have good size and Hinrich often defends SGs.
The Bucks would actually shave a few hundred grand off their current payroll since Hinrich's due $10 million this year and the three Bucks are currently on the books for $10.3 million, but next year they'd be adding about $7 million.
Speaking of Chicago, I thought there was some talk a while back about the Bulls talking to the Nets about swapping picks #16/26 for the Nets' #11, but I haven't heard about the Bucks doing the same deal for #10. Given that guys like Jennings and Blair could slip to 16 or lower, that'd be an interesting gamble. -
JS: Bucks keeping options open. There's a mention of a Ridnour/Stackhouse trade, though that seems almost too good to be true. Stackhouse only has $2 million of his deal guaranteed next year, so a straight up deal would save the Bucks $4.5 million. I'd be shocked (but ecstatic) if the Mavs can't get more than Ridnour for that, especially given how few sizable non-guaranteed deals there are out there.
Enlund also writes the Bucks are "highly unlikely" to even make Charlie Villanueva his $4.6 million qualifying offer, which would make him an unrestricted free agent. Considering Sessions could get up to an MLE deal and the Bucks will only have around $8 million or less under the tax (if nothing changes), you can see why they might not even bother. Enlund also mentions Ilyasova prominently, so it does appear the replace-Charlie-with-Ersan idea is very much in play. However, the other benefit of not giving CV a QO is that it would clearly show the Bucks are making Sessions' return a priority. And the more they can make that clear, the less likely he is to get an offer sheet from another team.